New editorial appointments at Business Report and Pretoria News

Tony Howard, CE of Independent Newspapers, has announced two senior editorial appointments:

1. Jabulani Sikhakhane appointed deputy editor of Business Report.

Independent Newspapers has appointed Jabulani Sikhakhane as deputy editor of Business Report. Sikhakhane is one of the country's top financial journalists, with a distinguished career spanning most of the country's major financial publications. He returns to Business Report, South Africa's biggest financial daily, after 8 years in which he worked as deputy editor of the Financial Mail, editor of the Sunday Times Business Times and most recently, editor of City Press Business. He won the Foreign Correspondents Association of Southern Africa's outstanding journalist of the year award for 1999 and the CNN African Journalist of the Year (Business Category) in 2000. A former Nieman Fellow, Sikhakhane was also a member of the Black Economic Empowerment Commission which presented its report in 2001.

Commenting, Sikhakhane said, "I am thrilled to return to Business Report and its fine team of journalists, where I hope to enhance coverage of trends and developments in South African business, and to build on the paper's philosophy of assisting readers to navigate through the changes and developments in the SA economy."

2. New editor for the Pretoria News

Following the phenomenal success of the Zulu-language daily, Isolezwe, where he was founding editor, Philani Mgwaba has been appointed editor of the broadsheet Pretoria News. He succeeds Clyde Bawden who retired at the end of January 2005.

A journalist for 14 years, Mgwaba (36) has worked as news editor on The Mercury, as an assignments editor at television station e.tv and has been the guiding force at Isolezwe since its launch in April 2002. In less than three years, Isolezwe has grown from 23 916 in its launch month to an average daily circulation of 68 003 (unaudited) in November 2004.

"I am extremely excited by the call to edit a quality newspaper such as the Pretoria News," Mgwaba said. "I see a great opportunity to grow the circulation of the title and broaden its readership base to make it truly a newspaper for all the people of greater Pretoria.

The other challenge is to ensure that the title continues to be an excellent vehicle for our advertisers." Mgwaba said the outgoing editor had laid a solid foundation for future growth. "I intend to build on this base to confirm the Pretoria News as a major asset and the foremost media mouthpiece of South Africa's capital city."

Thulani Mbatha, formerly sports editor, has been appointed acting editor of Isolezwe.

Chief Executive Howard said, "These new appointments add some exceptional talents to the already excellent pool of editorial skills and experience at Independent Newspapers, ensuring that readers and advertisers will continue to enjoy top quality reporting and comment in the Groups' titles."